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Stainless Steel Ashtray Inserts

By Henri Le Hir

For the Carbon Fiber inserts, just scroll all the way through....

Once upon a time....

I had electronic "guizmos" that I wanted to install in my Z, but I had already be drilling two holes by the clock, and I wanted either something looking factory, or hidden, but with a professional quality.

Looking around in the cabin, the only "naturally hidden" place would be to use the useless (for me) space located, into the ashtray.

So, I decided to start the "ashtray insert" project.

I thought is was a couple hours project....it turned out to be a "little bit" harder than that.

First, I melted some plastic, to be able to have the internal dimensions of the ashtray (down to 1/2 millimeter).

Then I tried to cut some "plate" in the following material
 

But, all had the same problems, the plate was either not fitting properly and/or was not stable enough.

To fix the stability problem, a 3-D design was invented, using some "legs" for stability.

As material, I decided to use....industrial polished stainless steel sheets.

First of all, I had to do a prototype.....it was messy.
0.5 mm thickness was not rigid enough, 2mm was too rigid / strong, and impossible to work with. Ever tried to fold a 2mm sheet of steel, and cut it to fit....well, your average saw won't cut it...pun intended...you've got to use something a little bit stronger. And your average wise won't do it either.....you need a (ahem)...60 TONS press to have a nicely looking form.

Then, when the prototype is done, and fitting perfectly, you've got to measure it (angles)....and SMASH IT flat...to remeasure it (dimensions).

Then, you JUST got to program a CNC machine, to be able to cut the next templates.

And finally, when you bought a large & expensive sheet of industrial stainless sheet, you have to get the CNC to cut the flat forms, and then have them folded....and it MUST be folded with the correct angle....from a visual perspective, the angle may look to be 90°, but in reality, 90° is a loose fit....and 92° is too tight. Well, basically, all of them had to be manually adjusted....

Finally, it was a long, and difficult project, much harder than I expected. And I did one run of these inserts, the first one, any very likely the last one as well, as it's simply too hard, and too much time consuming.

But enough reading....it's told that a picture is worth 1000 words, and I'm tired typing ;-)

Here they are....

Ugly looking.....right......well, it gives you an idea about the shape of the insert

And yup, when working on it, the protective sheet is kept in place, as it's a good idea NOT to scratch the stainless steel

Here it's installed in the ashtray, protection still in place

Same, just to give you an idea about the finish

And NOW.......

And BTW, it's a pain to shoot a polished stainless steel object.
If you want one, it's exactly one as above that you'll get. Plain, protected, no scratches, and perfectly fitting.
 

And now, here are my PERSONAL little projects, using switches for my "electronic guizmos"

First, drill a hole to install the switch, in my case, it's a 16mm hole

And here's the result...
These switches are industrial, Swiss Made, safety key controlled, with two separate switches.
It's a OFF / contact 1 / contact 2 switch.
And these switches may be included in the inserts (if  you ask me very nicely, and pay extra :-)

BUT I had a problem....I needed more than one switch....

DONE !!!

And as you can see, there's still some place to drill holes for LED / Indicators
Here's a side shot, so you can see that there's still some spare room in there.

By popular demand.....here are the CARBON FIBER inserts.........
They are the same shape / size as the stainless steel ones, they are easier to drill, and as they're lighter than the steel ones, then they may reguire some glue / gel to be secured in place, but it's the same tight fit.
For rigidity, 285g/m2 was used (regular is 200-220g/m2


 

I was asked to put some pics of the din sized panels...here they are...
but they are still pre-production (lol) prototypes !!
The small one is to go where the stock clock is located
The two big ones are for the "radio" and the "pocket" opening, in the center console.



Ahhh, yup, last thing

The cost for these stainless steel inserts is $20.00 each + actual cost of shipping (that should be under $10 in most cases).
It's the same price if you want to get a plain insert, a pre-drilled insert (one hole), or a 2 holes insert. (until they last !!)
Each switch (including 2 keys) is US$ 10.00
The cost for the carbon fiber ones is US$ 30.00 + actual cost of shipping (that should be under $10 in most cases).
And if you buy 2..3 or more inserts, the shipping will stay the same.
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If you're inetested, I'm making as well

DIN sized panels (to cover the pocket / the radio)
Clock Panel (to be able to remove the clock, and close the hole, or put some switches in there
There's no price for them, until _I'm_ satisfied with the results, but the price is likely to be between 20 - 40 US$, depending on the carbon fiber used.
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PayPal account is working, if you're in the USA, you can pay me using a check drawn on an US Bank, or an international money order.

That's all folks.....if you're interested, let me know

Zee you

Henri
 

Written by H. Le Hir / 020206-> 020527@18:30 email 100031.1520@compuserve.com